Summary:

A few weeks ago I applied for a loan at Lending Club. It was a Monday morning, and I was still in my pajamas. After having some cereal and coffee for breakfast, I went to the living room and turned on my computer.

I knew Lending Club had low rates, but I wanted to see what they would give me. I loaded their site up and checked my rate. The rate was good, so I applied. After filling out some forms and verifying my identity, I got an email from them saying the loan was approved.

Six business days later, nearly $2,000 in cash was deposited into my bank account.

Loans up to $35,000 via Lending Club

How are the rates at Lending Club so low? Well, unlike a bank, Lending Club does not have local branches, so they have no vaults or tellers to pay. Since they run completely online, they can pass on the savings to us in the form of better interest rates. Most people get a rate 5% lower than their credit cards, which can mean thousands of dollars in savings. Also, the rates are fixed. They will never go up, even after a late payment.

4 Steps for a Loan through Lending Club

Getting an unsecured loan at Lending Club turns out to be really easy. There are just four things to do:

Step 1. Check your rate

Go to the Lending Club website and check the interest rate they offer you for a loan (some people use MyInstantOffer.com). This requires you to give them a little bit of information like your name, address, and date of birth.

One minute after clicking the big green Get Your Rate button, you will be approved (or denied) for your loan. As you can see below, I was approved for a loan with a 9% interest rate, which is an APR of 12% (APR = interest rate + fees).

If you like the loan amount and interest rate they offer you, click the big green Get Loan button. If you want to increase or decrease your loan, select the amount you prefer and click the Get this loan instead button.

Step 2. Provide your personal details

Here you give Lending Club the information they need to verify your identity, including giving them your social security number. You can feel safe about doing this since Lending Club secures this page with 128-bit encryption.

After clicking Next you will arrive at the Disclosure Statement.

Agreeing to these terms is like signing your name to the loan application. Once done, your application is officially complete.

Step 3. Wait for your loan to get funded

With all that out of the way, the loan opens for funding. Lending Club loans are a kind of loan called peer to peer loans. This means Lending Club does not actually fund your loan themselves. Instead, they have lots of investors around the country combine their money to fund your loan. Note: currently every single loan is getting 100% funded at Lending Club, so don’t worry too much about this step.

Below is my B-grade loan on the Lending Club platform. At the time of this picture it was 60% funded by 11 different investors:

Click to enlarge

Within an hour of my loan being open to investors, it reached 100% funding from 28 different investors from states including Texas, New York, and Virginia:

Step 4. Verify your information

To finalize the process, you need to verify your identity with Lending Club. They will probably give you three steps to complete: submitting extra documents, confirming your email, and verifying your bank account.

Submitting documents: This is probably the most complicated step. Lending Club may ask you to provide old tax returns or paystubs. Every application is different. If you have digital versions of your files, you can submit them online. If you only have physical copies, you will need to make them digital with a scanner (or fax them). For my loan, I was asked to submit three months of bank statements. My bank provides these online in PDF files, so no scanning or faxing was needed. A few clicks and the files were uploaded.

Confirming your email: just click the link in the email they send you. Simple.

Verifying your bank: Lending Club makes a small deposit in your bank account (less than $1). Once they make this deposit, you log into their website and type this number in, verifying the bank is yours. For my loan, the trial deposit was there on Tuesday, the morning after I applied.

Credit history: At this point in the process, Lending Club may run a hard inquiry on your credit history (also called a hard credit pull). Hard inquiries will temporarily lower your credit score, but only for a few months. They remain on your report for two years. Remember that getting a good rate on a loan (like a mortgage or car loan) is more difficult if you have a large number of recent inquiries. A decent rule of thumb is to wait 6 months between every loan you apply for.

My $2,000 Loan Was Approved in 5 Days

Just five days after applying and verifying my identity, Lending Club sent me an email saying my 3-year loan was approved:

Why did Lending Club give me just $1,920? Why not the full $2,000?

Lending Club did not give me the full loan amount. They took $80 of my loan (4%) as a fee ($2,000 X 0.04 = $80). This is how Lending Club makes money, and this fee is called an origination fee. It is different for every borrower. If you have excellent credit you will pay just 1% in fees. Most borrowers will pay 4-5% in fees like I did:

It is important to include this fee in your loan request if you need to. For example, if you need exactly $20,000 and expect to pay 5% in fees, you would probably want to ask for $21,052 since $1,052 (5%) in fees would leave you with the full $20,000.

Paying Back the Loan is Easy

A month after your loan is approved, you will begin making payments. These payments will automatically be taken from the bank account you gave Lending Club when you applied. They will happen once per month until the loan is paid off.

Make extra payments: a very good idea. Any extra payments you make mean less paid interest overall, so try to do them. Lending Club allows both one-time and permanent extra payments. You can make these by calling them: 1-888-596-3157.

Pay back the loan early (no fee): also a great option, and Lending Club does not charge prepayment fees. Pay in full at any time.

Is Lending Club Safe? Is it Legit? Yes.

Many people wonder if this is a scam. After all, most have never heard of Lending Club before. But I can personally say that Lending Club is a very legitimate way to get a loan. Lots of positive press in major media prove that fact:

Secondly, applying for the loan is very safe. Every page of the application is protected with 128-bit SSL encryption, so you can feel secure knowing your information will remain private and confidential.

Hi Destiny,
A few reasons. The biggest is, getting a signature loan from a credit union can be difficult for most people. Second, it requires driving somewhere, whereas you can get a Lending Club loan just by going on your home computer. That said, if you can get a better rate at a credit union then definitely consider that! Lending Club is a great option, but it isn’t necessarily perfect for everyone.

Glad you wrote this up. I just completed the application process. I’m usually skeptical of any of these type of things because so many companies (since graduating college) has tried to lock me in to some crazy loan with crazy interest rates.

My credit is a little on the poor side… so the APR was still around 20%, but I went with a small loan that I can pay back this year to try them out first. 20% is still lower than one of the credit cards that I have (that carries a balance).

I was asked to pay $200 for a verifying voucher. I was denied due to my credit score. However, received an email from Steve Hart (408-905-1835) from Lending Club.
He stated this was common practice and my funds would be received upon my verification of $200. Please inform if this is valid

I am interested in seeing what kind of interest rate I would get but I don’t want to fill out all the information they are asking for and not be able to decline if the rate is not what I would consider a good rate. Am I able to delete and get out of it should I decide I don’t want to get the small loan??

I received a preapproved offer from Lending Club. I applied for $15k online Sunday night and was approved. It showed my credit score from Transunion, which was 715. Next, I verified my email address. Monday morning, I was at 30% funding. Tuesday, I verified my bank account after LC deposited/debited a small amount of change. I was fully funded by the end of the day. On Wednesday, I received the bank deposit of $14,400. My interest rate is 11.99%, which is way below any of my credit cards. The process was fast and easy for me.

I was approved at lending club for $10,000 (requested amount) with 685 credit score for 11.99% rate (14.24% APR), however I was declined at Prosper due to credit score. From what I’ve read, it is usually the opposite so I’m not sure what happened. I applied to lending club through the readyforzero platform so maybe that made a difference?

I decided to reduce the loan amount by several thousand to pay off one high interest credit card from Citibank (29.99% with no late payments ever!) that recently reduced my credit limit for no reason under my control. I would have consolidated more but my other cards are not much higher than the lending club loan so thought I’d start small to try out the service.

We recently bought a new house and my credit dropped as a result of starting a new mortgage loan with 100% financed . With my old house, I had equity so it reported more favorably.

I am currently at the stage of waiting for money to deposit into my account and I can’t wait to pay off that CITI card!

Just to update, prosper also noted on my disapproval email that I had too many credit accounts that exceeded 90% utilization in the past 6 months which impacted my “prosper score” I bet that is where they differ because they reported my credit score at 695 which is slightly higher than what lending club reported. (I applied for both on the same day)

I actually decided to take only 6000 because I wanted to pay off just the one high card and be conservative since I had no experience with peer to peer lending. For 6000, I chose a three year plan with payments at 197/month. When you apply, it shows three year and five year payment options and all the loan amounts you qualify for so you can compare with the amount you requested. Hope that helps. Just to let you know, I applied on Monday and the money was in my bank account this morning so I’m officially free of Citicard!

I am interested in paying down credit card debt from multiple credit cards. I was sent a pre-approval letter from the Lending Club. I am just curious of the rate and amount that I would be approved for. Will checking my offer put a hard inquiry onto my credit score immediately or only if I accept the offer?

I am interested in a LOan but do not like having automated withdrawls for my payments. I like making them myself due to getting paid at various times of the month. Somewhere I read this is available. How does someone accomplish this ?

The Lending Club Review I Left Yesterday Was Deleted. Hahaha What’s wrong Lending Clowns Do You Not Want People to Know That You Steal 5% of the Original Loan Amount People are Approved For. That’s Right People. Lending Club Will Take 5% away from what ever amount you are approved for and call it a Loan Origination Fee. They say this is how they make their money, So the High interest rate is what exactly.?? Stay away from this company unless you are desperate or ok with having 5% stolen from you on top of a high interest rate..

This is Not My Opinion Simon and You Know Darn Well that Lending Club does a Poor Job of Advertising this 5% Fee. So tell me Genius, how do all the other credit card companies makes Millions of dollars each year from their interest rates Yet Lending Club who charges an average of 25% with Daily Compounded Interest, Not Make enough money and feel the need to implement this Unethical Fee and Take advantage of Their customers.?

Credit card companies make millions of dollars by charging the retailer a fee every time you use your card, so basically those fees are wrapped into the purchase price of every item at Target, your local grocery store, etc.

Beware of this type of loan processing as your information may be at risk. Never send your personal information in an email as they request, as you don’t know who on the other end is receiving it or what if any safety of information contained is secure.

Information is not at risk on Lending Club’s side of things. They have an encrypted website, a A-rating from the Better Business Bureau, and positive press from CNN and the New York Times. Borrowers can feel safe about applying (though not everybody should get a loan).

I would have like to get rid of two credit cards : Citi with 25.24% APR and Capitol One with19.99% APR. I checked my rate . For the 15,000 I needed to pay the cards, the Lending Club offered a 29.99% APR. Even for lower amounts, the APR was the same. Unfortunately, my hope to get rid of the cards is over. Why do I get such a high APR, when apparently everybody else is getting an APR lower that the one at the credit cards? Thank you. Maria

I received one of your offers that said I was pre-approved for a loan for up to $35,000.00, but when I went online to fill out the application, there was no place to enter my personal code that I was given from the Lending Club. Why was I given a code if I cant use it or have any place to put it

Hi Simon! when i was looking for a way to consolidate my debt i came across this site and your review of lending club so i though i’d share my experience now that i just got funded. for me it was a 8 business day process; i was pre-qualified for lending club via lending tree. I borrowed 25,000 of this 24,725 was funded then minus $900 or so dollars for “origination fees”. my rate was 10.98% APR for 36 months with a monthly payment of $776 a month. My fico score was not the best but decent at 711. so this is my breakdown:
Pros:
-hassle free financing; no need to drive to the bank or sign loan docs; you can do it in your pj’s
– the interest rate is not bad; i also go approved through wells fargo for the same terms but for 16.48% APR just to give you an idea; compared to lending club’s 10.98% no brainer
– customer service was responsive; you can always call talk to a person in san fran and get your questions answered right away
– the money gets deposited to your bank account no questions asked; if you apply to a credit union or a traditional bank for debt consolidation; they’ll make the check directly to your creditors on top of all the paperwork you need to supply to justify the loan.
Cons:
– This is a big one: they’ll skim an origination fee on top of your loan. this is the fee for the loan docs and pretty much price of doing business. if you’re cool with this; then your good; if not then you can always go to a bank or credit union. for me it was $900 for a 24,725 loan so i only got 23,725 in my bank.

i hope this helps everyone else thats considering lending club. to me it was a great experience and i was able to lower my credit card monthly payments from 3,100 to 1,500 a month. On my way to being debt free in the next three years.

I applied on Monday for a 12,000 Loan. I got an email the next morning I was funded at 60% and then 90% as of yesterday and then an email later in the day with Congrats I was approved and backed 100%. My bank account doesn’t show any small deposits within the last few days (i.e. less than a dollar). Today the lending club website (when I logged on) shows that my 1st payment is due on 3/18/15 and that the loan has been “issued”. Should I assume this will be in my bank account in the next few days? My origination fee was 480.00 (and the balance they say I will receive is 11,520. I must say – this was very quick and easy (assuming it shows up in my bank LOL). Thanks!

I sent my W2 and pay stubs Monday morning and still haven’t heard anything. Is this a bad sign? My investors are at 100%, my bank and my email have been verified, but still no verification on the W2 and pay stubs. Does this mean I won’t be approved?

Same thing for me too, Coleen. Except, I submitted my docs on Saturday, verified my email that day, verified direct deposit amount on Tuesday and today is Thursday but I haven’t received a confirmation from them other than confirming the correct dd amount I reported. I sent my paystubs again today and followed up with an email to [email protected] but still nothing. I read that it can take up to 14 days but not hearing anything from them after the dd amount was confirmed is kinda discouraging.

I applied on 2/27. I verified my email & bank account on 3/2. I haven’t heard from LC. I’ve called & was told my app was being reviewed & to keep checking my LC & email accounts. Next week will be 1 month that i applied. I just want an answer.

Have you heard from Lending club regarding your loan. I was under the impression that the listing expires in 30 days, but that is incorrect. I spoke with a rep from LC and they stated that the listing expires 14 days after you complete your application.

Hi Jovanni,
Yes on Tuesday. I received an email to submit my w2 & paystubs. I ended up withdrawing the loan because I was going to include another loan that will be paid off in 2 years.
After considering my pros & cons I didn’t want to end up paying an extra yr for that loan. I ended up reapplying for a lesser amount & now things are moving faster. I now can see the investors.
Thanks.

Hi, I completed the lending club application on 3-16-15 (from a pre-approval notice i recieved last weekend), verified my email that evening and then verified my bank account the next day (Tuesday). I have not heard anything from lending club since. I was not asked to provide W2’s or paystubs. (I think this is because I already have an existing loan with them and has made 19 on time payements out of 36 payments). On lending club it states that my loan is fully funded and is under “Final Review”. Is there any way that my loan can be denied at this point. (my credit score was 665 when i completed the application last monday). Also, would lending club allow my appication to expire before completing the final review?

So on Saturday (at that point it was a week to the day since I applied) I get a call from some lady asking for someone by my first name but the last name was the first half of my previous last name (for example: Honey Peter instead of Honey Peterson) – I had legally changed back to my maiden name a year ago.

After telling the woman she had the wrong number, I did a Google search for the phone number she called from and see it was Lending Club. I call back and explain what happened and why I was confused they are trying to reach me by my old name and didn’t say the full name. I find out I accidentally applied with the wrong last name (kicking myself still) so I had to fax in my name change docs from court. I also emailed it when I responded to their email that was sent to me after I told the lady she had the wrong number. They wanted me to explain how I calculated my income.

Well, I ended one job last June after almost 4 years and started with my current employer last August so they don’t see one W2 showing my full income for the year since I haven’t been with the same employer yet for a full year yet. I sent them two W2s (old/new employers). My month of paystubs should be adequate enough to show the pattern of my salary and guaranteed commission and total earned YTD so I hope they accept that.

I called back to let them know I sent the fax and asked how long it would take, she told me 2-4 business days. I told her it’s been 5 business days so far (applied last Saturday) and all she said was the the loan people aren’t there on the weekends to review the new documents. Ugh, this waiting is killing me!

Honey, I cant stand the wait either. It’s been a week today for me and I’ve verified my bank acct and email and have yet to hear from anyone. I alredy have a loan with them, so I am not sure what’s taking them this long. I hate this about lending club.

Hi Honey, I applied for my first loan 8/8/13 and I was approved 8/13/2013 and my the loan was deposited 8/15/2013.

I received the same email as well because I contacted them last week to get an update, but still have no answer if I am approved or not.

I am not sure if it is completly necessary to have a new email address. However, when I received my pre-approval and tried to complete the application using the same email as my first loan, the site did say that the email is already in use and I would need to use another, which I did.

Hi, I recently applied for a $10,000 loan. This was on a Friday and over the weekend while waiting for the process I realized I needed a $12,000 loan. Fist thing Monday morning I was calling/emailing a representative that had contacted me to get the loan set up. I have never gotten a response and now my $10,000 loan has gone through and the funds are being issued to my account. If there anything I can still do to change this to a $12,000 loan? And advice is greatly appreciated!

Everyone is getting their funding so quickly! Today is day 10 for me (applied 2 Saturdays ago). I did see something strange when I signed in to look at my account today. I was initially “approved” at a 19.29% rate but now it’s showing 15.61%. The truth in lending doc still shows the original rate, but now they say my application is under review. I want to borrow $24K for 3 years to consolidate my credit card payments. I would love that lower rate!

I don’t understand how people are able to see the investors who are backing their loan and/or what percentage their loan is funded at. I don’t see that information at all. All I can see is that it says “Funding – Investors are backing your loan” and that my loan is in “Final Review”. Where can I see that information?

Here’s how my process has been so far:

1) 3/18/15 Wed. (approx. 11 P.M.) – applied for a loan because I had received a pre-approval in the mail. Verified my email that night.
2) 3/19/15 Thurs. (approx. 9 A.M.) – submitted my year end pay stub and two most recent pay stubs.
3) 3/20/15 Fri. – submitted my w2s.
4) 3/20/15 Fri. the trial deposit was in my bank account so I was able to verify my bank account.
5) 3/20/15 late afternoon – Called Lending Club to ensure they received my documents because the Account Summary said “received” but it wasn’t showing as completed. Lending Club said they received the docs and it was in review.
6) 3/24/15 Tues. – Sent Lending Club an email to check on the status because my loan expires on 4/1/15. I asked them in there was anything further they needed from me.

Not hearing anything is the most discouraging part. Fingers crossed I hear something soon.

Sylvia, me neither. I would like to see how many investors are funding my loan. When I got my first loan in 2013, I was able to but since then lending club has changed their interface. I applied for my loan last Monday 3-16-15 and still havent heard anything.

Honey, I would call them if I were you. Especially if you didnt get an email stating that you were denied. Also, when you clicked on “View Loan Documents” where did you see Adverse Loan Action. The only options that I have is….

The following is a list of your loan documents and agreements.

Loan Documents From Your Loan Application On 03/25/15

•Borrower Membership Agreement

•Loan Agreement

•Credit Score Notice

•Truth in Lending Disclosure (Estimated)

•Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Notice

•Policy Notice

Did you even have these options when you clicked on “View Loan Documents”?

I had all those docs you listed plus the Adverse Action notice. WEIRD that they haven’t emailed me and I had to find out by digging for it. Now I wished I never applied because the hope and then rejection has left me in a somewhat depressed mood. Well, I’m off to work now. Have a good day.

Mine was like your’s and Syvia’s before, but yesterday the look changed and the adverse action notice was added to the other list of docs. It’s also says the loan listing expires in 3 days and 4 hours, but at the point it will only be two weeks into the process and I thought it was good for 30 days. I’m just getting mad now because they haven’t even bothered to call or email me. :-(

About an hour ago, my status changed and it says “Done! Your funds will be deposited into your bank account.” So yay!!! I’m still trying not to get my hopes up because I’ve read multiple reviews where even though it has gone through the approval process, the funds still don’t get deposited and then the loan is rescinded! I don’t see why that would happen in my case, but it’s still nerve wracking. Under “Account Activity” there is nothing yet, so the deposit hasn’t been initiated. Fingers crossed this all works out. I’ll feel better once the funds are there. :-) I have never been so excited to pay off credit cards. Having one monthly payment and an end date in sight is going to be so wonderful.

Side Note: I still am unable to see the investors backing my loan or anything like that. Not sure why some have that info and others don’t. Also, I have not received any emails from Lending Club since the intial “verify email” and “verify bank” emails. No email letting me know the status changed to “Done”. So my advice for those waiting is to keep checking your account online and don’t just wait for an email.

Here’s how my process has been so far:

1) 3/18/15 Wed. (approx. 11 P.M.) – applied for a loan because I had received a pre-approval in the mail. Verified my email that night.
2) 3/19/15 Thurs. (approx. 9 A.M.) – submitted my year end pay stub and two most recent pay stubs.
3) 3/20/15 Fri. – Submitted my w2s.
4) 3/20/15 Fri. – the trial deposit was in my bank account so I was able to verify my bank account.
5) 3/20/15 late afternoon – Called Lending Club to ensure they received my documents because the Account Summary said “received” but it wasn’t showing as completed. Lending Club said they received the docs and it was in review.
6) 3/24/15 Tues. – Sent Lending Club an email to check on the status because my loan expires on 4/1/15. I asked them in there was anything further they needed from me.
7) 3/25/15 Wed. 1 PM – Status changed from “Final Review” to “Done! Your funds will be deposited into your bank account.”

I am happy and excited, but also trying to be patient. I’ll feel good about it once the funds are deposited. Lol. I’m so excited to pay off my credit card, have just one monthly payment, and have an debt free end date in sight. Fingers crossed this all goes through.

On a side note, I have not received any emails from Lending Club since the initial “verify your email” and “verify your bank account” emails. I have not received an email letting me know my loan status has changed or anything. Also, I’m still unable to see the investors backing my loan like some other people are. Not sure why that is.

Simon, I called them after work today and they confirmed that they would not be able to approve the loan based on debt to income. I asked them what they decided my income was and they calculated $65,150 (I stated $72K which is true, but I changed jobs last year so there is a couple months missing and they wouldn’t count it). I was told to apply for less in a month and I asked how much based on my income but he couldn’t say for sure. So how is the info below going to realistically change in a month? I know my balances are high, that’s why I wanted a loan to consolidate in the first place. I think Lending Club is being irresponsible in telling me to apply again in a month since nothing will change in that short of a time. Oh well, plan B.

My EX score is 667.
RATIO OF BALANCE TO LIMIT ON BANK REVOLVING OR OTHER REV ACCTS TOO HIGH
LENGTH OF TIME ACCOUNTS HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED
PROPORTION OF LOAN BALANCES TO LOAN AMOUNTS IS TOO HIGH

I am looking to get a loan for home repairs/updates. I did the soft pull rate check for 20,000 and was approved at 9.14, 11.9 apr and 4% origination fee.
What credit agency do they use when they do a hard pull later in the process?
If when they do the hard pull, my credit is better, do they give you a lower interest rate or are you locked into the original one?
If I know my credit score is about to go up in the next two weeks (paid down some cc), can I redo the soft pull? I am assuming the soft pull offer is only good for so long.
Thanks in advance!

Hello I recently applied for loan almost two weeks ago and i keep getting emails that its 60% approve 80% approved and 90% approved. Its still pending but have heard or got an email since the 90% approval. I like to know if that is normal or it there something that may happened?